I got to our office door, reached inside my bag and pulled out two packets of Pom-Bears. I sprinkled them all around the hallway and the entrance to our office. Inside the office I turned on Gigi’s torch – a T-Rex projected onto the floor. Checking around the room showed that each of the desks had a laptop on it. I left Robin’s but picked up the rest and took them to the safe on the back wall, gently placing them inside and securing the door. I went to Robin’s desk and got the hard drive out of his drawer and connected it to his laptop. With the press of a few buttons the laptop was logged onto our server. I started copying over both the hard drive and the desktop folder labelled with Peng’s mission number. ‘Nine minutes remaining’ said the screen.

Nine minutes to hold them off. I watched the screen as it copied. At least if they got all our hardware we would have a copy of everything relevant to the mission saved on our server. At six minutes to go I heard the unmistakable crunch-crunch of heavy boots on crisps. I gently lowered the laptop screen and crawled under the desk. Six minutes until the intel was safe.

With any luck reinforcements would’ve arrived by then.

I heard more crunches as the footsteps entered the office. There was a pause. I could nearly feel him staring round the dark room, straining his eyes.

There were more crunches as another Ghost entered.

The first spoke in a low voice: ‘No sign of anyone.’

‘There are clearly people here. We don’t even know where the fuck all the others are. I saw three torches fixed to the wall just past that canteen. Get them. We don’t leave until we’ve searched every office.’

I listened as their footsteps went back down the corridor, away from the offices and towards the canteen. Dammit, they’d seen Eight’s emergency torches. It would only take a few minutes for them to get there. I needed to act fast. Soon as they had those torches they could potentially find the fuse box and get the lights back on.

With the dinosaur torch in one hand and a gun in the other, I left our office, my bag still slung over my shoulder, and headed down towards their colleagues along the corridor. I limbered up and stomped my feet and waved the torch light around.

Come on, boys.

Come and play.

There was a shot.

Great. I fired two rounds into the darkness. I doubt I hit anyone but that wasn’t the plan. I turned and ran, my feet thudding against the floor. Shouts and I heard them chasing. I held the torchlight behind me, a jostling light leading the way. I ran to the corner and fired another shot.